On a warm Wednesday, in a sunny garden in back of Good Shepherd rectory, the Rev. Fred Babiczuk tended to a metal smoker.

“Let me put these ribs on and I’ll be right with you,” Babiczuk said.

Smoke billowed out into the air.

“A little bit of oak wood,” Babiczuk said.

He is the pastor of Good Shepherd Parish in Fall River’s South End. One of his pastoral skills is cooking, and his recipes drive the Friday Kitchen restaurant the parish runs.

In June 2002, Good Shepherd was created from St. Patrick’s, Our Lady of the Angels and Blessed Sacrament churches.

Babiczuk said the merger was necessary.

“Our Lady of the Angels was somewhat viable,” Babiczuk said. “Only because they had a smaller building.”

Babiczuk said neither Good Shepherd nor St. Patrick’s would have remained in business.

“It’s a combination of finances and the number of priests,” Babiczuk said.

But St. Patrick’s Church, Babiczuk said, is a beautiful church.

“I met a woman in her 90s who told me her father would get off his job at the mill every day and then come down to the church and help dig the foundation,” Babiczuk said. “These buildings held communities of faith that were so important to these immigrant communities.”

Good Shepherd serves 1,200 families, Babiczuk said.

“Financially, we’re on the edge of healthy/unhealthy,” he said. “We’re getting better.”

Babiczuk said the church’s major ethnic groups are Irish, French and Portuguese.

“That’s one of the best things,” Babiczuk said. “We bring together the three groups. ... We’re moving beyond ethnic boundaries.”

Holy Trinity, likewise in Fall River’s South End, was formed from St. Jean Baptiste, St. Elizabeth and St. Williams parishes which were, respectively, French, Portuguese and Irish/Italian.

“The people who attended those three churches all knew each other,” the Rev. David Andrade said. “They all lived in the same neighborhoods. The only thing that divided them was where they worshipped.”

Holy Trinity has 1,400 families, though Andrade, its pastor, notes the use of the word “families” can be misunderstood.

“Sixty percent of that number is one elderly person or an elderly couple,” Andrade said.

Would any of the three parishes that formed Holy Trinity have been viable alone?

“My answer would be no, but it wasn’t imminent,” Andrade said.

And he said the merger made the combined parish stronger than any of the three alone.

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“There are more people, there are more resources,” Andrade said. “There is a lot of hope right now.”

Andrade said he understood the connection between people and a particular parish.

“People do get attached,” Andrade said.

Andrade understands the bond between ethnic groups and churches formed especially to serve their groups.

“We didn’t see that as too much of an issue in this merger,” Andrade said. “St. Elizabeth’s was a historically Portuguese church. But most of the congregation was second or even third generation Portuguese American, so we didn’t have a language issue.”

Like Babiczuk, Andrade believes the merger is positive.

“I think it’s a great thing,” he said.

And he believes there’s a theological underpinning to mergers, even to the necessary demolition of church buildings.

“What is a challenge for Catholics is we get too attached to things, to statues,” Andrade said.

Merge in progress

Notre Dame De Lourdes and Immaculate Conception, just blocks apart in the Flint section of Fall River, are parishes on the very brink of merging.

While the new, combined parish is not yet in business, it will be called St. Bernadette’s and will operate out of what is now Notre Dame Church.

The Rev. Richard Chretien, pastor of Notre Dame, said both churches have roots more than 100 years old.

“We’re in the process of ‘remembrance meetings,’” Chretien said Wednesday.

He said at remembrance meetings, held at both parishes, parishioners are encouraged to talk about their lives at Immaculate Conception and Notre Dame. Those who attend are encouraged to bring not just stories but artifacts, everything from baptismal certificates to old weekly bulletins.

“We’ll be producing a DVD in June,” Chretien said.

He said the merged parish should be up and running by the end of June.

Chretien has been at Notre Dame as a priest for 12 years but his roots at the parish go deeper.

“I was born and brought up in the Flint,” Chretien said. “My faith experience was all at Notre Dame.”

Chretien knows both parishes contain people whose life experiences are similar.

“The parishioners at Immaculate Conception, most of them have spent their whole faith life in that parish,” Chretien said. “There’s a strong bond.”

As yet, he said, there is no talk of demolishing Immaculate Conception.

Chretien said that, for Immaculate Conception and Notre Dame, there were two reasons to merge.

“It’s not just a question of finances, it’s the number of people,” Chretien said.

Notre Dame has about 900 families on its rolls; Immaculate Conception has 400.